Worldcoin, the biometric identity project, has been banned from operating in Spain for up to three months, according to a press release from the Spanish data agency, the AEPD. The agency will also require Worldcoin to stop using the already collected data from Spanish citizens, utilizing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a base.

Yury Ushakov, an aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin, revealed plans to create a digital blockchain payment system for the BRICS bloc. Ushakov remarked that the countries of the group would benefit from implementing such a system for the use of governments, common people, and businesses, stating that it would be convenient, cost-effective, and “free of politics.”

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, a minority owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Dallas Mavericks, expects the price of bitcoin to go up due to the supply-demand dynamic. “I do feel that the demand is going to exceed the number of people selling,” he explained, adding that bitcoin is “a great store of value.”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has cautioned about crypto investing. “This is a highly speculative asset class. One could just look at the volatility of bitcoin in the last few days,” he stressed, warning that thousands of crypto tokens may be securities.

Crypto analytics firm Arkham claims to have identified the bitcoin holdings of Elon Musk’s companies, Tesla and Spacex. “The on-chain fund flows we’ve identified match financial statements from Tesla and Spacex,” the firm detailed, stating: “We are the first to publicly identify these holdings on chain.”

In a landmark achievement for the cryptocurrency sector, Transak has become the first global on/off-ramp service to secure SOC 2 Type 2 compliance. The firm explained to Bitcoin.com News that the accomplishment underscores the company’s commitment to data security and customer trust, paving the way for broader Web3 industry collaborations with heavily-regulated companies worldwide.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell engaged with the Senate Banking Committee, signaling that the U.S. is just beginning to contemplate the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In a statement released on March 7, the Canadian fintech entity Mogo disclosed its strategy to diversify its portfolio by investing in bitcoin and bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), earmarking an initial outlay of as much as $5 million.

In a recent legal twist, the High Court in Podgorica has ruled in favor of extraditing Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to South Korea. This decision comes after the Montenegro Appeals Court overturned a previous ruling that favored his extradition to the United States, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing legal battle surrounding the former crypto mogul.

As bitcoin remains close to its peak price levels, a wave of positive sentiment and enthusiastic vigor is enveloping the crypto sphere. This week, onchain analyst Willy Woo, the same market strategist who asserted in November 2023 that bitcoin will probably not fall under $30,000 again, is of the opinion that the latest surge is just a “warmup” or an introduction to significantly higher prices that will “shock” the traditional finance sector.

The latest data reveals that the premium on bitcoin in South Korea has escalated to its highest level in more than two years. At 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Thursday, the weighted global average price for bitcoin hovers between $66,800 and $67,000, whereas on the South Korean exchange Upbit, bitcoin’s price stands at $71,076 per unit.

According to the latest data, bitcoin has been trading above the $67,000 mark, with average network transaction fees experiencing a 288% increase from $3 to $11.64 since Feb. 25, 2024. Meanwhile, <a class=\\\"lar-automated-link\\\" href=\\\"https://branch.wallet.bitcoin.com/news-contextual-btc\\\" 311996 target=\\\"_blank\\\">BTC</a> has consistently stayed over the $60,000 level for eight straight days, elevating the daily value of one petahash per second (PH/s) of mining power to a seven-day high of $119 on March 4, 2024.

The recent adoption of cryptocurrency by traditional financial (tradfi) institutions is likely to reshape user perceptions of this asset class and may even foster broader acceptance of blockchain technology, Sami Start, co-founder and CEO of the crypto trading platform Transak, has argued. Start added that the entrance of tradfi institutions into this market is likely to bring a level of credibility, expertise, and stability that was previously perceived to be lacking.

Wormhole, a platform fostering blockchain interoperability within decentralized finance (defi), has unveiled plans for an airdrop of its proprietary token, W. The initiative is part of the protocol&#8217;s broader aim toward progressive decentralization, rewarding dedicated users and developers within the Wormhole ecosystem.

A U.S. district judge has sided with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a ruling that declares the trading of certain crypto assets on secondary markets to be securities transactions. This decision emerged from an insider trading case involving crypto exchange Coinbase&#x2019;s former product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and their friend Sameer Ramani.